He Who is Called Great
by KrissyKat91
Summary: In which Adam stumbles across an interesting object while hiding from Teela, the inhabitants of the palace find they don't know a certain court jester nearly as well as they thought, and Skeletor receives a very nasty shock. CHAPTER THREE EXTENDED.
1. The Bazaar

KrissyKat91: I was looking at pictures of Orko on DeviantART and got inspired. The little guy needs more love. I only have three or four chapters planned for this, so it shouldn't take to long.

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Ch. 1: The Bazaar

Adam sighed tiredly as he wondered through the Eternos marketplace.

He was, once again, hiding from Teela. He wasn't lazy, no matter what she and his father, King Randor, seemed to think. It was just that Skeletor had been attacking Castle Grayskull almost every day for the past two weeks, and He-Man, Adam's alter ego, had been needed every time. Not that he could tell them that.

Well, Grayskull may have needed He-Man, but _Adam_ needed a break. Duncan had understood, and had promised to steer his daughter in the wrong direction.

So here he was, in the one place he could think of that Teela might _not_ think of. As he meandered down the street, he passed a booth selling trinkets from some of the more rural villages.

In another world, Adam would have walked on by, never sparing the booth a glance, never knowing what he would have found, and life on Eternia would have continued just as it always had. In this world, however, the sun chose that moment to shine in just the right way to cause one of the objects to glow brightly.

The red light caught Adam's attention, prompting him to glance down as he walked past. Seconds later he stopped dead in his tracks, swiftly backtracked, and stared in disbelief.

A memory rose up as he gazed at the object, a memory of black fear, purple danger, and crimson salvation, a memory of spectral power pulling him out of harms reach.

Shaking himself, Adam called, "Excuse me, sir?"

Turning from where he'd been rummaging through a trunk, the merchant replied, "Yes? What can I do for—Oh! Prince Adam!"

"Where did you get this?" said prince asked, holding the item up.

"A friend of mine found it in the stomach of a dead Swamp Hopper six years ago. Not a mark on it," the man responded dutifully, looking somewhat awed at the fact that he was having a conversation with the Crown Prince of Eternia.

"How much?" Adam immediately asked.

The older man's eyes bugged out a bit, but he said, "W-well, normally I'd ask for forty silver pieces, since all the components are of high quality, but for you, Your Highness, I'll say ten."

Adam frowned. "I don't want to be treated better than anyone else just 'cause I'm the prince," he said, pulling six gold coins from a bag on his belt. "I'll pay full price, and keep the change."

The merchant tried to protest, but quieted when the teen held up a hand.

"If this is what I think it is," he murmured, "then it's worth more than I could ever pay." So saying, he tucked his purchase into his vest and started jogging back towards the palace, bidding the bewildered merchant a good afternoon over his shoulder.

* * *

"Hey, Orko!"

"Ack!"

**Pop!**

Adam cringed as the flowerpot the Trollan had been fiddling with exploded, spreading purple smoke and multicolored bubbles throughout the courtyard.

"Sorry, buddy," he muttered, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

"It's okay," Orko sighed, gazing mournfully at the mess around him. "At least I didn't destroy anything important this time. Did you need something?"

Grinning slightly, Adam rocked back on his heels and said, "I went into town today and got you a present."

Orko's eyes lit up. "Really? What is it?"

Adam laughed. "Close your eyes and hold out your hands."

The little mage did so, and Adam removed the object he had purchased earlier from his vest. Taking a deep breath, he placed it in Orko's outstretched hands.

Immediately, the magician gasped and went rigid. Eyes flying open, he stared at the gift in clear disbelief.

There, in his hands, as if it had never left, was his wand.

"Ad-Adam," he croaked, shock having stolen the air from his lungs, "how did you—?! _Where_ did you—?!"

Feeling quite pleased with himself, the blonde leaned back again and closed his eyes as he replied, "Someone was trying to sell it at the bazaar in town. It was sheer dumb luck that I stumbled over it when I did."

He cracked one eye open to see Orko's reaction, only to straighten up in alarm. The Trollan was gripping his wand so tightly his knuckles had turned white. His head was lowered, the brim of his hat obscuring his eyes, and his shoulders were shaking.

"Orko?" Adam asked in concern, reaching for his friend. The next thing he knew, his arms were full of laughing, crying Trollan.

"_Thank you! Thank you thank you thank you!"_

Adam just smiled and hugged him back.


	2. Surprises

KrissyKat91: Okay, I'm not sure what you all expected me to have Orko do to show off his newly regained control, but I tried to pick something that would be suitably impressive while still maintaining his role as court jester, which, all things considered, he really does seem to enjoy. Here's hoping it turned out well (y'all go look at _Through a Fractured Looking Glass_ while you're here; I'd like at least one person to review it).

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Ch. 2: Surprises

"I wonder what has Orko so excited," King Randor mused as he, Queen Marlena, Man-at-Arms, Teela, and Adam waited for their friend.

The Trollan had been zinging around the palace all morning, moving at speeds he hadn't displayed since the day he'd discovered coffee (a memory that still haunted Duncan's nightmares).

After the mage had calmed down, he had requested the group now waiting more or less patiently to gather in the throne room, telling them that he had something to show them.

"Whatever it is," Man-at-Arms grumbled, "I hope it doesn't backfire too horribly."

"Father, be nice," Teela admonished. "It's not like he does it on purpose."

"I sometimes wonder," Duncan muttered.

Adam laughed. "Don't worry. You'll like this."

Randor raised a brow. "Do you know what this is about, Adam?"

"I might," the blonde drawled slowly, a playful grin on his face. "I also might have promised Orko I wouldn't tell."

Before anyone could press him further, Orko himself flew into the room, his arms full of small chunks of onyx, the type Marlena liked to line her private gardens with.

"Sorry that took so long," the Trollan puffed. "I had to iron out a few details. Um, you don't mind if I use these, do you, Your Majesty? It's the only onyx I could find on such short notice."

"Of course not, Orko," Marlena replied, although one could tell by the look in her eyes she was worried about what type of spell might require the rocks. "Just... be careful."

To the surprise of everyone (save Adam, who alone knew how badly the mage's constant failures affected him), Orko's eyes narrowed.

"I'm always careful," he said shortly. "It's not my fault I can't control my magic without a focus."

"Could have fooled me," Duncan muttered.

"Father!" Teela hissed, obviously mortified.

Orko, who had been arranging the pieces of onyx on the floor of the throne-room, stiffened, and for just a split second Adam could have sworn his eyes turned solid yellow. But then the second passed, leaving Adam wondering is he was finally losing his marbles.

"Alright!" Orko announced, positioning himself over the stones. "For your viewing pleasure, I am going to transform these stones into replicas of He-Man and the Masters, as well as Skeletor and his soldiers, and have them preform a mock battle."

Duncan immediately squeezed his eyes shut, bracing himself.

Orko raised his hands, then whipped his wand out of his sleeve. With a twirl and a twist, something like blue electricity struck the chunks of onyx, which shifted and warped into exactly what Orko said they would, accurate down to the very last detail. The only real difference was that the figures were all pitch black.

"Father, look!" Teela said, poking Man-at-Arms in the side.

Duncan cracked one eye open warily, then snapped them both open. "What?" he squawked incredulously.

Orko snickered, then waved his wand again. The stone figures immediately lifted their weapons and attacked each other, the stone Skeletor and the stone He-Man in the thick of it.

It didn't take long for the "battle" to end, with each of the stone Masters having their adversaries at their mercy. Orko spun his wand counterclockwise, and in a flash of blue light the statues all turned back to chunks of onyx, clattering harmlessly to the floor.

Tucking his wand back into his sleeve, the Trollan raised an unseen brow and asked, "Well?"

Randor, Marlena, and Teela all gaped in dumb shock, while Adam nearly swallowed his fist to keep from laughing at the looks on their faces.

"That—that—you—how—?" Duncan spluttered.

Though no one could see his face, there was still the sense that Orko was smirking smugly. "Adam found my wand. I can finally control how much magic I use."

"What do you mean, Orko?" Randor asked.

The Trollan's eyes narrowed again. "You didn't think I was really that incompetent, did you?"

An uncomfortable silence (minus a disbelieving snort from Adam) was the answer.

"I see." Orko shook his head and sighed. "I'm not really—"

Whatever the mage was going to say was cut off as a massive explosion rocked the throne-room, and a distant voice bellowed, "IT'S SKELETOR!"


	3. Orko the Great

KrissyKat91: Remember how, in the first chapter, I said this wouldn't take very long to write? The next time I say something like that, slap me and remind me of this.

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Ch. 3: Orko the Great

"IT'S SKELETOR!"

Upon hearing the cry, Randor leaped to his feet.

"Marlena, get to safety! Man-at-Arms, Teela, gather the Masters! Adam—!"

Before the king could finish issuing his orders, the doors to the throne-room were blasted down by a beam of powerful magic, and what looked like the second cousin of the Grim Reaper strode in.

It was Skeletor, and he was oozing smug triumph.

"At last," the mad (and possibly undead, Adam had never been quite sure about that) warlord hissed, the points of ruby light that served for his eyes shining brightly with wicked glee. "With the fall of the House of Randor, Eternia will be mine!"

Randor's eyes blazed. "How dare you come here?! Whatever your plan is, you will not get away with it!"

Out of the corner of his eye, Adam saw Orko start to float to the side, apparently intending to duck behind something as he usually did when caught in a battle, then stop and stare down at the sleeve that hid his wand, as if suddenly remembering it was there. Then Skeletor started speaking again, drawing the prince's attention.

"And how exactly do you intend to stop me? In case you haven't noticed, your Masters are either busy outside," here he paused, sending out a spell that wrapped Man-at-Arms and Teela in sickly green bands of energy, "or at my mercy here. All you have is a noncombatant, a coward, and a bumbling oaf of a magician to protect you. And best of all, that thrice blasted He-Man is nowhere in sight!" The warrior-mage threw back his head and cackled maniacally.

_And he's not going to be,_ Adam thought wildly, _if Skeletor kills me here!_ With that in mind, he began to inch towards the side exit, hoping Skeletor wouldn't notice. Luck was not on his side.

"Where do you think you're going?"

Adam barely had time to register the bolt of magic heading his way before he suddenly found himself flying through the air, headed straight for a stone pillar. Just before he hit, however, his flight was arrested by a familiar shroud of energy, which then gently placed him on his feet. Blinking, Adam's eyes followed the retreating trail to Orko's wand, and he gulped nervously. There was no mistake about it this time. The Trollan's eyes really were glowing a solid, eerie yellow, and Adam knew what it meant.

Orko was _angry._

Adam had seen this only once before, a long time ago, when Orko's frustrations with himself and the people (coughDuncancough) who constantly put him down had finally gotten the best of his self control. Nobody had ever figured out who had been responsible that ten foot deep, thirty foot wide crater in the back garden, and Adam wasn't telling. He owed the magician too much to rat him out like that. That being said, he really didn't envy Skeletor.

"I think," Orko said calmly, power crackling around him like a thunderstorm, "it's past time I correct a mistaken idea some people have about me."

"And what might that be?" Skeletor asked, sounding just a tiny bit less confident.

Orko snapped his wand towards the chunks of onyx again. The stones liquified, twisting together and expanding until the mass was nearly fifteen feet tall, effectively hiding the royal family and the two bound Masters from Skeletor.

"It's time everyone knows why my people call me Orko the Great."

Orko jerked his wand up, then to the side, and the mass of liquid onyx began to reshape itself.

It had a long neck, and a short, thick torso. It's upper limbs consisted of two pairs of bat-like wings, a large set on its back and a smaller pair where its arms should've been, plus a set of long insectoid limbs that ended in huge scythe blades directly under the second set of wings.

Its lower body was shaped like the thorax and abdomen of some enormous praying mantis, with four spider-like legs holding it upright.

And its face. Its face was the worst. Two huge almond shaped eyes stared blankly from an ovoid head, set over a perfectly round, gaping maw lined with serrated teeth. No other features could be seen. That this was only a golem of some kind never even registered. This thing was the stuff of nightmares.

The whole transformation only took about three and a half seconds, after which Orko did a complicated spiraling motion with his wand. The golem's eyes glowed the same bright yellow as its master's, and it lunged at Skeletor with an blood chilling screech.

"Orko?" Adam squeaked as he watched Skeletor fight what looked like some kind of demon. "What-what _is_ that thing?"

"Its name doesn't translate well," Orko replied, taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly, the glow in his eyes having faded enough that Adam could see his pupils again. "The best I've come up with is 'Dweller in the Pit of Death'. It's lives in only the most inhospitable parts of Trolla, and will eat any living thing it sees." He paused when one of the golam's wings got blown off. "I could have summoned a real one, but there was no guarantee I could control it. As it is," he began what basically amounted to a dance in midair, ribbons of colors Adam had never seen spiraling around him, "it only has to distract Skeletor."

Skeletor, for his part, was ducking and dodging like his life depended on it (and for all Adam knew, it did), while attempting to blast another limb off. He'd tried to parry once. One swipe of a scythe limb had cleaved his paired sword in half, and not the way it was supposed to go. Finally, he got a lucky shot out that knocked both the golam's left legs off, sending it crashing to the floor.

At the same time, Orko finished his dance, the colors coalescing into an iridescent orb at the end of his wand. Skeletor turned, and Adam had just enough time to see the warlord's jaw drop open before the orb erupted into a beam that enveloped Skeletor, the golem, and apparently (judging by the startled shouts coming from outside) the rest of the Evil Warriors.

After several seconds, the light faded, and silence rang throughout the throne room. Then Orko sighed, slumping forward slightly.

"Well," he said, "that's that."

"What… just happened?" Adam asked after several seconds of silent gaping. "What did you do, Orko?"

"A spell chain. A repair spell to regenerate the Dweller golem, a self repair charm, and a transport spell to send it, Skeletor and the Evil Warriors as far from civilization as I could throw them. That last one's much easier to use when you have a specific destination in mind, but since I was only thinking "Far away from people", I had to brute force it." He chuckled sheepishly. "I'm a little out of practice."

Randor shook his head. "That… Orko, that was incredible!"

The Trollan looked at him incredulously. "What, _that?_ I learned to do spell chains when I was only a few months into school, and everything I've done today was beginner level. Well, except the "Create Creature" spell I used to make the Dweller golem, but that's only because the less raw material you have to make the golem, the more power it takes. Speaking of which, the Evil Warriors are going to be fighting that thing until they either throw it in a pit of lava, or it runs out of magic, whichever happens first. Either way, we won't be seeing them again for a while. Um, are you all okay?"

Randor, Marlena, Duncan and Teela were all staring straight ahead, looks of blank shock on their faces.

Leaning forward, Adam waved his arm in front of them. Then he looked at Orko and said, "I think you broke them."

The mage blinked. "Too much information?"

"Yeah, just a tad."


	4. Epilogue

KrissyKat91: And voila, she is done! I finally finished another story! Seriously, this thing took way longer than I thought it would.

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Epilogue

"Hey, Orko?"

"Yeah?"

Adam pulled his attention from the sunset to look at his friend. The two of them—plus Cringer, who'd been napping in Adam's quarters and hadn't even known there was an attack until after the fact—had relocated to a little used balcony on the uppermost level of the palace, whilst Man-at-Arms surveyed the damages, the king and queen made rounds to reassure the other residents of the palace that they were safe for another day, and Teela took it upon herself to tell all and sundry exactly who had defeated Skeletor this time.

"Tell me the truth," Adam said slowly, crossing his legs and resting his elbows on his knees. "Could you have killed Skeletor today?"

For a long moment Orko didn't answer, merely crossing his arms and staring at the horizon, gaze unreadable. Then, very quietly, he said, "Yes, I could have."

Swallowing hard, Adam then asked, "Why didn't you?"

Turning his head slightly, Orko stared intently into Adam's eyes for several seconds, apparently searching for something. Whatever it was, he must have found it, for he sighed and said, "There is a saying on Trolla: 'In taking revenge, one is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior*'. I think I'd rather be superior to Skeletor than even with him, don't you?"

"…Yeah, I think I would, too."

The prince and the magician sat in companionable silence as the sun finished its decent beneath the horizon, the Adam turned to Orko again.

"Sooo," he drawled, lips curling into a grin, "does this mean He-Man has a new ally in the seemingly never ending fight against the forces of evil?"

"That sounded rehearsed," Orko accused lightly. "Adam, I am a sorcerer, a scholar, sometimes an alchemist, and occasionally a pain in the neck, not a warrior. But, if you ever truly need my help, I'll be there. Now I think we should head back down. We missed dinner."

At that, Cringer (who'd been curled up behind Adam, listening to the conversation) jumped up with a horrified screech and rocketed back into the palace. Laughing, Adam and Orko followed.

* * *

*quote by Francis Bacon, slightly modified


End file.
